1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of controlling the movement of a single neutral atom or a small number of neutral atoms, and more particularly to a method of trapping a single neutral atom or a small number of neutral atoms within a space of small volume at a distal end of an optical fiber probe. The present invention also relates to an apparatus for controlling the movement of a single neutral atom or a small number of neutral atoms to trap said neutral atom or atoms within a small space at a distal end of a probe and for releasing said trapped neutral atom or atoms at a desired position.
Recently, intensive studies have been effected for a method of controlling the movement of a group of atoms with the aid of light to trap it in a vacuum and a method of controlling the movement of a single ion by utilizing an electromagnetic microwave to trap it within a limited space. The former method is called the method of optical molasses by laser cooling and the latter method is called the ion trap method.
The former method can trap a group consisting of a relatively large number of atoms by the use of laser light, but this method can not capture a single atom or a few atoms. The latter method can capture a single ion, but can not trap a neutral atom having no electric charge. Due to the above mentioned limitations, the known atom trapping methods can not be utilized for wide applications. For instance, the silicon atom, germanium atom and arsenic atom, which are important in semiconductor device engineering can not be captured.